No Shortcuts

The right road isn’t about seeking shortcuts; it’s about embracing
the struggle. Strength is forged in battle, not when trying to find a
way to avoid the battle. Do you really think you can avoid life’s
problems and challenges for the rest of your life?

No.

To be strong you must learn to be strong in the middle of the storm.
In the gym, there is no avoiding the inevitable. To build muscle you
must:

Remain consistent. Sounds silly to even mention this, but consistency isn’t that easy to maintain. How many of you haven’t missed more than a week or two away from the gym in the last five years?

I’ve been involved with online forums and lifting groups since
forever, or around 2002. During that time I’ve made so many good
friends. But here’s the thing…

These folks would come and go; they would hit the iron hard for weeks
or months or even a year then disappear. If I was a betting man I would
wager that at least 75% of folks don’t remain consistent over a
five-year period of time.

Now, don’t get upset. This article is about building a quality amount
of muscle mass and not simply about achieving a “fit physique.” There
is certainly nothing wrong with being happy about adding 10 pounds of
muscle mass.

Not everyone wants a maximal amount of muscle mass.

But for those of you that do, meaning the people reading this
article, mediocre strength levels won’t cut it. Multiple sets of
50-pound dumbbell bench presses won’t cut it. My wife can nearly do
that.

Sorry if that unsettles you. It’s not an insult but rather a reality.

You need to push harder, dig deeper, and get a lot stronger.

Exercise selection. Don’t avoid the hard compound lifts. This attitude is cancer. Hit the body hard with a few compound movements and then move on to less-taxing exercises like machines, bodyweight work, isolations, etc.

Exercise selection isn’t rocket surgery. Go hard and heavy when you
are fresh, and slowly lighten the load and intensity as you are running
out of steam.

Anyone that wants to pack on mass muscle must get strong on a good variety of dumbbell and barbell exercises.

Nail your food. Just as workout consistency is king, remaining consistent with diet is also very important. I like to set minimums for both calories and protein intake. These minimums are levels that you must never sink below.

Certainly, a day or two with lower calories or protein isn’t going to
hurt anyone; that’s not what I’m saying. My point is to help keep you
consistent.

Remaining consistent with diet 90% of the time will only help. If you
keep undereating protein and calories or refuse to have even a cursory
understanding of where they are landing each day, then you risk slowing
your progress.